APPARENTLY, it all started with an 'angry' Facebook post at the height of lockdown in 2020.
"I knew the name Rupert Holmes, and his famous song, but I had no idea he was born in Northwich," said Tom Barrow.
Tom, a digital learning designer, is the man widely credited with originating the idea of Northwich's flagship festival.
"It sounds bad, but I think I was a bit angry his connection hadn't been used to the town's advantage.
"We should've been shouting it from the rooftops.
"We’d had a few bad years as a town including floods, the market burning down, the train station collapsing, not to mention Covid.
"It just felt like we needed something to look forward to."
Tom's Facebook post was picked up by Cllr Sam Naylor, whose ward includes the town centre.
Sam pitched the idea to a number of local authorities, but there wasn't a huge amount of appetite, according to then-Northwich Business Improvement District (BID) project manager, Adam Gerrard.
As a last attempt to get something off the ground, Sam arranged a meeting between himself, Adam, Tom, and Northwich Town Council clerk, Chris Shaw, to see if anything could be done.
"I think we were a last resort,"said Adam.
"It was just after Covid, and I though, if we can get people into town buying piña coladas from restaurants and bars, it couldn’t do any harm.
"We had a tiny shoestring budget. Me, Sam, Tom, and Chris had a meeting, then I went away and put a bit of a plan together.
"There was a very short turnaround time.
"It was just a couple of gazebos, a couple of bands, a little bit of a parade going through the town centre, and a couple of pubs doing cocktails.
"It didn't get off to a great start.
"The two gazebos, stage, and PA system had to be moved in the first hour due to flooding.
"The parade was a car crash. It was meant to start in Barons Quay and go around town driving the footfall around. That was the idea.
"Sadly, the band we booked wasn’t mobile, so the dancers were moving along to no music, very slowly, to where the band was stationed by Wildwood.
"It was the cringiest thing I’ve ever seen in my life, but for some reason, people still loved it.
"Not many bars took it up at first and most struggled with their recipes.
“I swear, there was one bar whose were literally curdling. They were the worst piña coladas I’ve ever seen in my life.
“They didn’t get many return customers, I can tell you.
“But by the next year, they had upped their game big time. I think they’d spent the year learning how to make it good.
"The number of people who actually turned out is what spurred us on to do it again and again.
"I don’t think anyone could’ve predicted how far we’ve now come."
Northwich BID still does most of the work to organise the festival, which in 2026, is set to be bigger than ever.
Current BID project manager, Lynn Riley, said: "This year there's going to be a giant urban beach at the top of Witton Street, alongside a surf simulator, free photobooth, and loads more.
"We have to keep the event moving forward without losing any of the appeal which brings thousands of people to the streets of Northwich.
"We actually get people coming to us wanting to be part of the event, rather than us going to them."
Tom added: "I am so proud with how the festival has developed and taken on a life of its own.
"It has made the town come together in ways I would never have thought possible.
"I actually do like a piña colada, yes, though I’ve never had two which taste the same.
"That’s why it’s great for a festival.
"You can go around all the different bars and restaurants and figure out which you like best."
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